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Full PeaceWomen Newsletter Text: http://www.peacewomen.org/publications_enews_issue.php?id=200

Crises and Silences – Women for Peace

Maria Butler, PeaceWomen Director

August 27, 2014 - Violent extremism, militarization and arms proliferation continue to devastate communities from Sinjar Iraq to Chibok Nigeria, from Ferguson USA to Ilovaisk Ukraine, and in each and every street of Gaza, Palestine.

The news from Iraq is increasingly troubling. Those from the Yazidi community that have not been killed are forced to leave, stranded in the mountains without food and water, and there have been mass abductions and gross violations of women rights. ISIS is continuing to advance with disturbing violence including the targeting of women and girls.

The silence and the contradictions of the Women, Peace and Security agenda on prevention, profits and proliferation are very evident when stakeholders, particularly those in the international community, discuss the spectrum of violence in these different contexts.

In Gaza, Women, Peace and Security obligations have had limited consideration, simply no talk of women’s participation is in the negotiations. WILPF and others have raised the gender questions and obligations in our work including in a recent open letter to the Security Council on Gaza. The usual gender resistance and response of “later” is echoed when obligations are raised. With the agreement of a cease-fire and indirect talks, accountability must be prioritized. Crimes and violations perpetrated in the last seven weeks must be investigated. This accountability should include who continued to support, fund and supply weapons to the parties. Ray Acheson discussed arms transfers and obligations in her recent piece, which called for the UK to end its role in Israel’s humanitarian law violations.

We see this gender resistance and blindness in Ukraine where WILPF Secretary-General, Madeleine Rees, is on mission this week doing an assessment. There is a real and persistent gender bias among power holders and this is the core of what Women, Peace and Security must challenge to change the status quo. In a recent interview on mediation, I discuss how power is the bottom line, and how power holders, most often governments and armed groups, want to control the power dynamic, resources and discourse......

So with 2015 around the corner, we are asking what is the "call to action"? How can we address the silences of Women, Peace and Security? PeaceWomen calls for national debates on WPS/SCR 1325 where Member States hold parliamentary sessions on Women, Peace and Security. It is clear that implementing the WPS agenda including in the post-2015 agenda will continue to be an uphill battle. But civil society groups, including WILPF, must continue to press for implementation at national and local level, women’s participation in the peace-making, mediation and negotiation processes to fully implement SCR 1325 and the WPS agenda.